SWAPO

SWAPO, formerly the South West Africa People's Organization, is a social democratic political party in Namibia and a former national liberation movement. SWAPO was founded on 19 April 1960 to fight for independence from the racist regime of South Africa and, from 1966 to 1990, SWAPO fought alongside the MPLA against South Africa in the South African Border War, which ended with Namibia gaining independence. SWAPO changed the name of the new country to "Namibia" after the Namib Desert, ending the usage of the colonial name "South West Africa", and the group decided not to change its deeply-rooted name, although only the abbreviation was used from then on.